SCU HCI
Our research spans digital wellbeing, community-engaged augmented reality, and human–AI collaboration.
What the lab is working on now. Project overviews reviewed Fall 2026.
Studying how people with ADHD experience digital distraction and use tools for attention and time management.
We are exploring flexible support that people can adapt to their own needs and daily routines.
Exploring how AI can help people combine features across websites while preserving their control over a custom workspace.
We are investigating which parts of a workspace people want to shape themselves and which they want AI to handle.
A community-engaged augmented reality tour that brings Ohlone stories and site-specific media to the Santa Clara University campus.
The OhloneAR app connects community stories with places on campus, through collaboration among Ohlone partners, students, and faculty.
Building tools and methods to systematically find, collect, and analyze mobile apps.
Current work includes searching app stores, collecting app information and reviews, studying review methods, and developing guidance with researchers.
Studying and documenting place-based AR projects to preserve their stories, design decisions, community relationships, and deployment lessons as platforms change.
Selected papers, tools, and milestones from these research areas.
01 · Research area
Investigating attention, habits, and the design of digital environments.
Exploring how interface design can support intentional technology use, including a YouTube interface that lets people choose between recommendations and search.
Tools and guidelines for collecting and analyzing app-store data, helping researchers study the digital environments people use every day.
02 · Research area
Working with communities to tell stories in the places where they matter.
Co-designing augmented reality with the local Ohlone Native American community to make Indigenous pasts, presents, and futures visible on the Santa Clara University campus.
In collaboration with Muwekma Ohlone Tribe culture bearers and language keepers, Native community contributors, and SCU faculty and students.
Muwekma Ohlone Tribe culture bearers and language keepers: Gloria E. Gomez, Monica V. Arellano, Isabella Amne Gomez, Georgiana “Gigi” Kormey Gomez, Lucas Arellano, and others.
Native community contributors: Mandy Macias, member of the Dunlap Band of Mono Indians and descendant of Mountain Maidu and Ohlone tribes; Mariah Aragon, member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe and descendant of the Crow Tribe.
Faculty advisors: Kai Lukoff, Amy Lueck, Lee Panich, and Danielle Heitmuller.
Student contributors: The full project page acknowledges the student contributors to the tour.
03 · Research area
Studying representation, authorship, and control in AI-mediated experiences.
Examining how generative AI represents race and gender when it invents people for different occupations.
Exploring how people can shape their own web experiences by moving and adapting interface features across sites.